Tupac Amaru

Tupac Amaru guerrillas Saturday offered Peru's new government a limited truce in a move to avoid civil war. The other side of the coin: Rebel leaders hinted at more attacks against U.S. targets in the impoverished nation. Despite the truce offer to President Alan Garcia, Tupac Amaru demanded revolutionary change in Peru, where guerrilla attacks have killed 5,100 people in the past five years. A rebel leader: ''We reserve the right to continue fighting . . . North American imperialism.''

LIMA, Peru -- Lori Berenson, the 31-year-old American imprisoned in Peru since 1996 for terrorism, was convicted again in a retrial Wednesday, dashing the hopes of her parents and others who had championed her case. Berenson, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for collaborating with leftist guerrillas in a failed plot to seize Peru's Congress, was cleared of more serious charges that she was an active rebel militant. The court said she would not be released until Nov. 29, 2015, a sentence that includes the five years she has already served.

ROMANTIC REVOLUTIONARIES. Recent bombings of the Bolivian Embassy and the U.S. consulate to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the death of Che Guevara were typical actions of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, diplomats say. ''They're really just a bunch of romantic revolutionaries,'' an Interior Ministry official said. ''They do sometimes kill people but it is almost by accident.'' Tupac Amaru, estimated to number about 500 guerrillas, specializes in bombings of foreign embassies and business interests.

The blood was cleaned up, but a putrid smell still hung in the air this past weekend as Japan's Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto toured the burned-out ambassador's home where Tupac Amaru rebels held captives for 126 days.The elegant white-brick mansion that housed Latin America's longest-ever hostage siege has turned into a rotting shell, littered with the debris of battle more than two weeks after Peruvian troops rescued 71 hostages in a violent raid.The walls - charred from explosions and riddled with bullet holes - were a testament to the bloody gun battle that killed 14 Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement rebels, one hostage and two commandos on April 22.

FOOD FOR THE HUNGRY. Guerrillas hijacked a truckload of frozen chickens, drove it to a shantytown in the northern part of Lima and gave them to the residents. Police said members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement were responsible. The Tupac Amaru, which surfaced in September 1984 with a machine- gun assault on the U.S. Embassy, has handed out food from hijacked trucks more than a dozen times. The week before Christmas last year fruitcakes were handed out from a stolen bakery truck.

''This is our response to the repressive apparatus centered in this evil ministry,'' the Tupac Amaru guerrilla group said Friday in claiming responsibility for a car bomb explosion at Peru's Interior Ministry. It destroyed or damaged about 20 cars and injured one police officer. Police also defused a second bomb behind the four-story ministry, headquarters for Peru's police forces. Security officials ordered sharpshooters stationed at government buildings and sealed off parts of downtown Lima Friday in response to the attack.

GUERRILLA WARFARE. The bomb blew the dog to bits. Witnesses in the Lima shantytown said Tupac Amaru guerrillas wrapped a Peruvian flag around the animal and tied the bomb to it. Bombs also were placed on a bridge, in a parking lot and at a bus stop, but experts defused them. Four guerrillas hijacked a truck loaded with candy and cookies and distributed the cargo in a slum neighborhood. Tupac Amaru is a pro-Cuban group. A larger rebel organization, the Shining Path, is Maoist.

Pro-Cuban guerrillas on Saturday night freed a prominent television executive who was kidnapped in October in Lima, police said. Hector Delgado Parker, owner of Peru's largest television and radio network, was reported in good condition after being held more than six months by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. A videotaped message by a Tupac Amaru leader was broadcast by Delgado Parker's TV station on Wednesday. An announcer said the broadcast was one of the kidnappers' demands for Delgado Parker's release.

The blood was cleaned up, but a putrid smell still hung in the air this past weekend as Japan's Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto toured the burned-out ambassador's home where Tupac Amaru rebels held captives for 126 days.The elegant white-brick mansion that housed Latin America's longest-ever hostage siege has turned into a rotting shell, littered with the debris of battle more than two weeks after Peruvian troops rescued 71 hostages in a violent raid.The walls - charred from explosions and riddled with bullet holes - were a testament to the bloody gun battle that killed 14 Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement rebels, one hostage and two commandos on April 22.

DYNAMITE ATTACKS. Seventeen buildings in Lima and Huancayo, 125 miles east of Lima, were targets of dynamite attacks. Three people were injured. Materials from the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Group, which favors the Cuban style of communism, were found at several of the 10 places in Lima that were attacked. An official of the police anti-terrorist command said suspects were picked up but would not give a number. Peru's other guerrilla group, the Shining Path, follows a Maoist line.

The Clinton administration Tuesday expressed relief at the end of the hostage crisis in Peru but insisted it had no official advance information about the Peruvian government's decision to storm the Japanese ambassador's residence compound in Lima.White House and State Department officials reiterated U.S. support for Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori's refusal to ''give in to terrorism'' and blamed the left-wing Tupac Amaru movement for the violent end to the hostage crisis.While not directly endorsing his decision to use force, they expressed sympathy for his actions after four months of fruitless negotiations with the hostage-takers.

Peruvian officials have renewed contacts with leftist guerrillas holding 74 hostages, establishing what President Alberto Fujimori described as a radio bridge to the rebels.The government also is approaching countries that could provide asylum to the rebels once they release hostages they captured 25 days ago at a reception in the Japanese ambassador's residence.In a sign the government is serious, an official close to the negotiations has detailed the makeup of a three-to-five-member commission that would monitor any accord reached with the rebels.

Four Japanese business executives and three Peruvian officials regained their freedom on New Year's Day, grinning wearily as they trickled from a seized diplomatic compound after 15 days of captivity.The leftist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement commandos who seized the Japanese ambassador's residence two weeks ago still hold 74 hostages.Clutching plastic bags of dirty clothing, the hostages ambled from the compound at 5:20 p.m. flanked by Red Cross delegates. They were later whisked off for a medical checkup.

Dashing hopes that a two-week-old hostage standoff was on the verge of ending peacefully, newly defiant Tupac Amaru rebels insisted Tuesday they would settle for nothing less than the release of their jailed comrades.''We are inflexible in our original position,'' rebel commander Nestor Cerpa Cartolini told reporters during a raucous day that included a visit by about 20 cameramen who crossed into the besieged Japanese ambassador's residence.''This is now in the hands of the government,'' Cerpa said.

As negotiators struggle to end Peru's two-week-long hostage crisis, one point is emerging as a clear focus for compromise: brutal prison conditions in Peru.Convicted terrorists must serve their first year in isolation. The cells are concrete with a hole in the floor for a toilet.One meal a day, of mostly rice or potatoes, is served, along with tea and a bit of bread morning and night. Occasionally the midday stew is flavored with chunks of rat meat, according to former prisoners.Newspapers are banned, as are radios, television and writing instruments.

Uruguay's ambassador to Peru walked free from the besieged Japanese ambassador's compound Tuesday night just hours after Uruguay released two Tupac Amaru rebels awaiting extradition to Peru.Uruguayan diplomats in Lima said the pair of releases were completely unconnected. But onlookers remained unpersuaded, calling the situation too great a coincidence and warning that Uruguay was undermining efforts to stand firm against terrorist demands.''I imagine the international community will frown on it quite starkly,'' said Sally Bowen, the head of Lima's foreign press association and one of the hostages freed the night of the attack on the ambassador's residence.

The leader of the Marxist guerrillas holding hostages in the Japanese ambassador's residence is a former textile union official whose adept attacks and ability to evade capture have elevated him to almost mythic stature in Peru.For more than a decade, anti-terrorism police have pursued Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, the leader of the Cuban-inspired Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, which took over the building in a stunning assault Tuesday night.Law enforcement officials and recently freed hostages have confirmed that the elusive Cerpa, who is known in Peru as ''Comandante Evaristo,'' is commanding the heavily armed rebels from inside the house.

Four Japanese business executives and three Peruvian officials regained their freedom on New Year's Day, grinning wearily as they trickled from a seized diplomatic compound after 15 days of captivity.The leftist Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement commandos who seized the Japanese ambassador's residence two weeks ago still hold 74 hostages.Clutching plastic bags of dirty clothing, the hostages ambled from the compound at 5:20 p.m. flanked by Red Cross delegates. They were later whisked off for a medical checkup.

The leader of the Marxist guerrillas holding hostages in the Japanese ambassador's residence is a former textile union official whose adept attacks and ability to evade capture have elevated him to almost mythic stature in Peru.For more than a decade, anti-terrorism police have pursued Nestor Cerpa Cartolini, the leader of the Cuban-inspired Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement, which took over the building in a stunning assault Tuesday night.Law enforcement officials and recently freed hostages have confirmed that the elusive Cerpa, who is known in Peru as ''Comandante Evaristo,'' is commanding the heavily armed rebels from inside the house.

Pro-Cuban guerrillas on Saturday night freed a prominent television executive who was kidnapped in October in Lima, police said. Hector Delgado Parker, owner of Peru's largest television and radio network, was reported in good condition after being held more than six months by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement. A videotaped message by a Tupac Amaru leader was broadcast by Delgado Parker's TV station on Wednesday. An announcer said the broadcast was one of the kidnappers' demands for Delgado Parker's release.